election day. numbers that could change everything inarazortightrace.the government reports america's unemployment rate rising in the month of october to 7.9%. 171,000 jobs added last month. that is far fewer than the 250,000 many economists say are needed each month to turn the economy around. so that is the big number we have. that's where we start. good morning. i'm bill hemmer. welcome here. morning, martha. martha: good morning bill. what a week. it is friday. welcome everybody, i'm martha maccallum. this jobs report today could be the freshest things people have in their mind in terms of a economic number when they head to the polls in a few days. this short shows it has been a very slow, sluggish recovery. the government reports real unemployment, this is the number we want to focus on, 14.6%. we say that for a good reason. that includes people that are underemployed, even people only worked one day, get counted in the underemployed, part time emed employed. some just have given up. bill: stuart varney, anchor fox business network. good morning to you. start with the more sig

swing state of ohio. the polls show it isarazortightracethere. both candidates doing what they can to get their voters out, their supporters out. the auto bailout a key issue and auto workers could be a critical voting bloc when they go to the polls in ohio. we will talk about that. >>> also the latest on this monster storm, hurricane sandy, bearing down on the east coast with 90 mile-an-hour winds and a storm surge six to 11 feet above normal. the latest coming up. jenna: fox news alert now. a storm that is affecting 50 million americans. it has ripple effects across the country now. we expect to hear any moment from president obama. he is going to be speaking about hurricane sandy and, standing by with us as well is our we've chief white house corresondent, ed henry. we'll be to ed in a second as we're watching the briefing room as we expect to hear from the president. quickly to note, a couple of ways we're seeing national impact from this storm, not just along the east coast where we expect the storm to hit fully later on today. we have the stock market closed. this is the firs

intothisrazortightpresidentialrace for all kinds of reasons. we're really in the path of both of these storm this morning. here in new york, and bill is in the heat of the race in ohio today. he'll talk to rob portman just eight days 'til we pick a president. brit hume joins us as well. we'll see you here at the top of the hour we'll see i at the top of the hour. jenna shared her recipe with sharon, who emailed it to emily, who sent it to cindy, who wondered why her soup wasn't quite the same. the recipe's not the recipe... ohhh. [ female announcer ] ...without swanson. the broth cooks trust most when making soup. mmmm! [ female announcer ] the secret is swanson. but i still have a runny nose. [ male announcer ] dayquil doesn't treat that. huh? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus rushes relief to all your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your runny nose. [ sighs ] thank you! [ male announcer ] you're welcome. that's the cold truth! >> steve: incredible images just coming in. look at that right there. this one from virginia beach. two friends leaning into the strong wind and rain off th